


bells will be ringing

by pistolgrip



Series: 12+1 days of siesixmas [1]
Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pistolgrip/pseuds/pistolgrip
Summary: Dark Guild Wars is in December, and duty calls before Christmas does.
Relationships: Siete | Seofon/Six | Seox (Granblue Fantasy)
Series: 12+1 days of siesixmas [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570165
Comments: 8
Kudos: 51





	1. oh, what a christmas to have the blues

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 12 Days of SieSixmas! I’ll be posting Siete/Six, COMPLETELY unprompted!, every day until Christmas, so please look forward to it!   
> All of the fic are disconnected from each other—I’ll add specific context notes for any that need it.
> 
> For this one, it's _technically_ set in the same ‘verse as _the universe in your hands_ , but literally all you need to know is that they’re married right now. (To be specific, it’s the same year they got married + they haven’t had their first anniversary yet.)

Helping Gran with the ancient battlefield during the waking period became a way for the Eternals to break routine, although not monotony; the week's battles were so trivial that it had been reduced to a competition from the real danger it once was of preventing ancient gods from wreaking havoc. Their enemies cared not for their calendar, so when they made their resurgence in December, they overlooked that Christmas was around the corner.

Six didn't care that the timing was close to Christmas, either. Siete should know this by now, after almost nine years of seeing him during other holiday celebrations, but this would be their first Christmas together since they were wed, and although the battle period would end days before, he could still tell that Siete's mood was still dampened by his departure. As if to rub salt in the wound, changes in schedule and teams meant that Siete, who had been looking forward for months to be beside him during the early battles, could no longer join.

All of this culminated into Six waking up the morning he was due to leave for the week, feeling more sluggish than usual, but doing his best to go about his day. It only takes a few minutes of being awake for him to notice that Siete is moping enough for the two of them, wrapping his arms around Six's waist as he tries to get out of bed and keeping him there, mumbling about how he's leaving in the late afternoon for a week instead of spending the buildup to Christmas with Siete and the Eternals. He's never felt so reluctant to leave before, even if he's always approached Guild Wars with indifference.

As it gets closer to the hour where Six has to leave, Siete offers to help him pack. He doesn't need the help, but as he finishes telling Siete that—neutral, stated as fact—Siete's forced laugh makes him pause his motions to look at him.

Of course he's still looking for excuses to spend time together, even for something as routine as preparing for Guild Wars. He offers a small smile. "In retrospect, if you could confirm whether I have enough clothing for the week, it would be appreciated."

"You don't have enough clothes for anything," Siete chirps, much brighter then a few moments ago. "You have two versions of the same black outfits."

"They're functional and comfortable. I don't see the need for anything more."

"You don't want more excitement in—oh, what's this?" Siete's voice rises with amusement, and Six turns to find him pushing aside other hangers to reveal Mask Bleu Clair. Six never wore it as intended, since Siete made it for him during the summer months, but he has no doubts in Siete's craftsmanship regarding its warmth.

"You know what that is." Six entertains him as he takes the coat off its hanger.

"Do I? I've never seen you wear it." Siete walks behind him and fits it over his shoulders, fluffing up the fur. "You should bring this with you, it'll be cold."

Once he starts moving and fighting, he'll be forced to shed layers in avoid overheating. Rounds runs for sixteen hours, and he'll have plenty of opportunities to stay warm, whether he's on the battlefield or resting during fight periods. Still, he knows this from when they first started dating—Siete will fuss and worry openly over him, even though both of them know how capable he is. After all of Siete's insistence that Six's capable of taking control of his own destiny, it's a _little_ bit endearing.

"I'll be fine without a coat this heavy, Siete." He restrains his smile as Siete puts his hood up and musses the fur.

"So you _don't_ wanna pretend I'm there giving you a hug while you fight?" He grins up at him, hands moving down to hold Six's.

This is the same paradox Six knows him to embody; the more serious they've gotten, the more Siete opens up to him, and at the same time, the more Siete hides away parts of him. He becomes more sincere during their time together until a certain point, at which he clams up and becomes the same, over-the-top joking personality that Six knew him to be. This might be one of those times, where Siete is too afraid to say what he wants.

Six squeezes his hands before tugging down. Siete follows the action. (Siete always does.) He makes a face at the feeling of the faux fur tickling against his cheek, a knowing smile and a cheeky one, and Six feels the urge to wipe it off his face, like he has since the moment they met.

"Is something wrong?"

"What? Nah," Siete says in a tone that doesn't even convince himself. Six raises an eyebrow. "Nothing I can't handle alone."

"Nothing you can't handle without me while I'm gone in the week leading to Christmas?"

He's right on the mark. Siete's smile fades into a grimace, and then he stops forcing it altogether, wilting under Six's questioning gaze. "It's weird to think I won't be beside the Eternals now for these battles anymore. You've all gotten so much stronger without me!" His voice gets close to sincere before he twists it into a joke, trying to laugh it off.

Six isn't convinced. He never was fooled by Siete's playfulness before they started dating, and he isn't now, and the only difference is that he isn't embarrassed to admit he wants to be there to catch him when he falls.

Six removes the half of his mask that he's still wearing, and then holds Siete's face in his hands; a willing exchange of vulnerability, one mask for another. "You're upset you can't come with me." He says it like a statement, although he means for it to be questioning.

Siete bites down on his lip, hiding his hesitance with a smile. "I _may_ have been looking forward to bugging you for the weekend that I planned to help you and Gran with." Six stares at him without saying anything else, compelling Siete to fill in the silence. "The weekend that… also happens to be _just_ before Christmas."

Six feels his expression soften, tenderness filling his heart. "I care so little for the holidays that if that's what you want, you may as well set any other arbitrary date for our Christmas celebrations."

"Well, that, and…" Siete trails off. Six raises an eyebrow. "I used to join you guys all the time, even when it wasn't Earth enemies! I get a little stir-crazy thinking about how I can't join you all anymore! I have empty nest syndrome!"

Siete's voice is much too cheerful, suddenly a touch too loud, and Six's eyes narrow, his ears twitching. There's truth to Siete's words; Siete cares for them more than any of them could know, and it's because of this that as much as he jokes around, he refuses to take the any credit for their growth, if he believes he has any hand in it at all.

Six can see it in his eyes that Siete feels too weak to assist the Eternals because of how far they've come. He might not still be good at recognizing his own spiralling thoughts, but it's easy to recognize them reflecting on Siete's face. In fact, Siete's tells are so obvious that Six can't believe he didn't recognize what they were until he admitted that he _cared_ about the man.

Recognition doesn't mean Six knows quite yet what to do about it. Siete's laugh tapers off, and silence settles between them as Six tries to find the proper words.

"We still call this base ours," Six starts, even if he feels unsure, even if he doesn't know that he can help. "The others have many homes, and yet they still call the base one of them. I, for one, have little else to call my own. And yet, the spirit that we embody isn't possible without you." He doesn't make eye contact as he speaks, weighing each word with consideration, but he looks back up at Siete when he finishes.

After a moment's hesitation, he tiptoes to peck Siete on the lips. "These changes among us give you more time to yourself instead of joining us tirelessly on these frequent expeditions."

Siete frowns at his words, and his heart sinks, already preparing to reword his faulty encouragement, but then his expression softens. "I _like_ spending time with you guys, though. It's not really about being useful."

"Are you sure?"

Siete breaks out into a bashful smile. "Well, maybe both evenly." He turns his eyes back up to Six, and he senses that Siete's about to change the tone of the conversation yet again. "Mostly, it sucks that I'll have a loveless Christmas at home while my husband is getting all hot and sweaty without me."

Six tries to hide how fast he turns red, but judging by Siete's grin, he's unsuccessful. He can tell Siete's trying to deflect again, so he averts his gaze for a moment before looking back.

Instead of acknowledging the comment, he says, with a frown, "You know as well as I that you would never be loveless. We may be apart, but you will always occupy my thoughts. You're persistent enough to follow me into the unconscious realm."

Six closes his eyes and squints, unable to bear how trite the words sound. He's still not sure whether he's talking himself into circles, or if anything he's doing is actually helping Siete, but some of his worries evaporate when Siete kisses the tight, embarrassed line of his lips. "Not that you need the reminder, but I'll always be thinking about you too. I'll keep the bed warm for your sexy, sexy return."

Siete kisses him on the cheek sloppily, and despite himself, he blushes even deeper. "I'll do what I need to and return home posthaste."

He still stumbles over the word _home_ , but less so as time goes on. This base _is_ their home, but so is being here in Siete's arms, a warmth that stays with him even with the prospect of being apart.

He doesn't need any extra layers to keep him warm this winter. All he has to do is remember how much Siete loves him, and he'll have enough warmth, come any adversity.


	2. christmas and new years will find you home

Six doesn't have many belongings to pack, so he's the first back onto the Frontier after Zeus' defeat. This ship is smaller than the Grandcypher and used for rarer events like this, and he settles for waiting on the deck.

It's to the Christmas decorations littering the halls that he attributes the strange feeling that washes over him. The night never changes, but the people that pass through it do, and never is that more obvious than during the holiday season. While the moon and these stars are a perpetual fixture in his night sky, the land collects its own galaxies in the form of Christmas lights hung around this temporary ship. Cheer fills his teammates, but it fills him with a bittersweet melancholy that blends together to become nostalgia for something he's hardly known.

He doesn't see his other team members until they take off. They visit him while he leans against the railing of the top deck, wishing him a Merry Christmas and handing him seasonal confections. He sticks a candy cane in his mouth and watches the islands beneath them pass by; many of the towns have snow-covered rooftops, colourful lights still blinking up at him despite the late hour.

Six offered to remain at least until the early morning so that the Grandcypher's main crew could get rest before their departure, but Gran insisted on bringing everyone home first. Even after this time, the word _home_ still made his heart skip a beat, something that was still difficult at times to reconcile, but also something he knew was a possibility for him now, something he shouldn't be afraid to allow as part of his vocabulary.

The holiday season must be affecting Six more than he realizes. He should be exhausted after successfully restraining Adramelech and Zeus, as well as the flurry of monsters that returned every iteration of Guild Wars, but while the rest of his muscles ache, his heart feels light.

Light, and heavy at the same time. He is free of immediate strife, but anxiety coils within him, waiting to strike at his peaceful mind again.

Narmaya sidles up beside him, bundled up in her own coat and rubbing her arms. "Hello," she greets.

After a second, he nods. He knows that she's been on good terms with Okto and Fif for quite some time now, and he trusts her as a strong fighter and a competent partner in battle. He enjoys her company but doesn't actively seek it, and so outside of the context of battle, he's still unsure how to treat her.

She must know his silence to be his normal state of conversation, so she continues on. "I don't know if either Zanba or Fif have mentioned this, but I'll be at the Eternals base for a day. I'm spending Christmas at the Grandcypher, but considering the season, I'd like to keep in touch with my only remaining family for a day or so. Fif in particular says she has somewhere she'd like to bring me, so tonight, you and I are headed to the same place."

Looking over to her, he sees a small smile on her face as she watches over the clouds covering their skies. "Make yourself at home," he says, testing the word _home_ in his mouth again and finding it to his liking.

"It must be nice around this time of year," she says. "I haven't been there very much, but it seems like as of late, you've all been trying to make it a comfortable place to be. But maybe that's just because the positivity of Zanba and I getting along makes your base look friendlier." Seemingly sensing his hesitation, she looks up at him. "But you seem apprehensive."

"Something within me waits to strike," he admits. "Anxiety waits ever still."

"You sure you're not just homesick?" She asks this, not unkindly, and he takes the time to think about it.

She gives the anxiety in his heart the name _homesickness_ , a leash by which he controls it, and then it becomes tame. The fact that something so simple evaded him makes him chuckle, to Narmaya's surprise. "You make a point."

"It's hard, isn't it," she says, her voice faraway. "To wait for something that might have never existed in the first place, and then have to change the way you think."

He looks over at her, but this time, she isn't looking back. The ship sails over the clouds, and the cold air whips at their faces. She mentioned that she and Okto reconciled their differences recently. He wonders how she handled that kind of change.

Six is used to a stable world where _he_ is the anomaly. The Karm clan was stable in the path of destruction they razed until his birth, and after his massacre, his world was suspended until someone else came to shake him free.

His life is an endless search for something he'll never have a name for, but for all places except one, he is an anomaly. The Eternals are people that have their own turbulent history that led them on different journeys to the same place, problems of their own and solutions he'd never consider. Their strange little base is in a constant state of change, the only constant being that they differ from the general population.

But it doesn't mean that things aren't allowed to change. Six has never been good with change, since for him, it has always been for the worse—but with the Eternals by his side, always moving, maybe he can find something in it to love.

He sinks more of his weight heavily onto the the side railing of the ship, until he's sinking down and laying his head on his crossed arms, letting the sharp winter air blow his ears about. "It still is difficult, yes," he mumbles. "However, a future that brings change does not seem quite as bleak as it once was."

"You're right." Narmaya's voice has an amused lilt to it, or perhaps just a positive one. "Maybe it's not so much an anxiety for the future as it is anticipation for the good things it'll bring."

* * *

Narmaya doesn't visit the base often enough to know the way there, and Six has no intentions of taking his time leading her. She's already met with Terra, and while she didn't win like the rest of them, she fought a long and hard battle that even Okto approved of, and that was enough for Terra to recognize her as an ally of the Eternals.

The path to Terra's resting place for the season is hard to find if one doesn't know where to look—but for Six, the path opens itself up for him. Neither of them exchange much words, both tired from their battles and Narmaya's understanding that Six isn't much of a conversationalist.

When he sees the base, Six allows himself an amused huff, hidden under his mask. In waiting for his return, Siete expended his restless energy to decorate the entire base. Not a single floor is untouched by twinkling lights; the colours he knows as the Eternals' adorn every space but with white instead of black; in an act that Six can only describe as magic, Siete found Terra an _enormous_ Christmas hat. Knowing him, he must have found a way to make it himself. He can't imagine that such a place exists where Siete could buy a hat that large so readily.

So caught in his emotions, he forgets how long he's been staring until Narmaya lets out a small giggle beside him. "Feels good to be home?" she asks, the picture of innocence, and Six realizes his cheeks are hurting with the smile on his face.

In weather like this, his mask is almost unbearably cold, metal freezing to his skin. He puts his hood over his head, the fur of the Mask Bleu Clair coat tickling his neck, and mumbles, "In a sense."

The snow here is freshly fallen, but the sky is clear, and the moonlight fills in the craters their footsteps leave behind. Terra's low rumble signals that he's almost home, and Six enters the base with Narmaya close behind.

A blast of warm air hits them as he opens the door to the base, and he makes quick work of removing his coat. Narmaya hesitates as she whispers, "Sorry for intruding."

She says it like she doesn't expect anyone to be awake, but Six knows better. In the common room closest to the entrance, Siete dozes on the couch with two cups of hot chocolate prepared on the coffee table in front of him. Even though he expects it, Six's heart still skips a beat at the thought that Siete was waiting for him to return.

Narmaya's eyebrows raise and she purses her lips. "Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be awake."

"It's fine," Six says. The anxiety in his heart, tamed into anticipation, beats like a march through his veins, moving him forward until he's in front of Siete. He still doesn't quite know how to wake Siete up, much like how Siete still stumbles trying to wake him up; years of training themselves to prepare at the slightest sign of danger makes them light sleepers.

"Siete," he says in a clear voice before nudging his shoulder. As expected, Siete inhales sharply and becomes alert in an instant, eyes darting around before he adjusts to the common room's low light from the decorative Christmas lights.

"Hey," he croaks out. Half-asleep, he cranes his neck up to kiss Six.

Six freezes at first; affection in front of the Eternals is one thing, but in front of other friends that they don't see often feels like another. By the time he can override that instinct and tell himself to breathe, Siete's already pulled away. "We have a guest," Six says as greeting instead.

Siete flops his chin onto Six's shoulder to look behind him where Narmaya is standing, and then he raises a hand to wave. "Hi, Narmaya."

"Hi," she greets back, shuffling to remove her boots and her coat.

"I'll get off this couch in a sec. Fif and Okto should be coming home later this morning, so you can rest here for the time being, unless Fif lets you sleep over in her room. All this time and we still haven't made a guest room!"

Siete's voice, tired with sleep and hoarse, rumbles against Six's chest. Six sighs, rolls his eyes, and puts Siete back down against the couch. He takes one of the mugs of hot chocolate and walks over to Narmaya, still trying to warm up in the foyer, handing it to her. The other he takes for himself when he sits back down next to Siete, who lays his head on Six's shoulder. "Both of you, good work, by the way," Siete mumbles, sounding like he's falling asleep.

Narmaya smiles at both of them. "It's what we have to do," she says, with playful resignation. "I can use the upstairs bathrooms to wash up for the night, right?"

"Sure, no problem. The girl's side of the base should be empty except for Sarasa, I think."

With a thumbs up, she starts walking up the stairs. "Alright. Goodnight, you two."

Six makes a noise when he hears her footsteps fade from the stairs, and Siete lets out a breathy chuckle. "Hi, again."

"Hello, Siete," he grumbles in return, flustered. Siete laughs—not his boisterous one, but a small laugh that sounds like his smile was given a melody to sing. It feels like the sun is shining on a summer day, enveloping him in warmth.

Siete nuzzles into his shoulder. "The trip here okay?"

"Nothing of note," Six mutters, resting his head on top of Siete's, the tiredness overriding his usual restraint for semi-public affection. "I offered to wait until the morning so as not to burden Gran and his crew, but he insisted on returning everyone."

"Please, you know that guy's gonna try and get people home as soon as possible when it's _three days_ before Christmas."

His heart flutters again at the word _home_ , but instead of a skittering feeling, it's more akin to fireworks, the release of something he'd been anticipating this entire time. This base is a warm shelter, with a place for him to lay his head and rest. He has sustenance and company, and they have others that they bring back here, too. The Eternals may not be here every second of every day, but they call this place their home base, and that enough gives it life.

They sit there in comfortable silence. Even the Christmas lights that they've hung up around the base aren't stationary, flickering and coming in ebbs and flows. Things are always changing here with the Eternals, but Siete is a constant presence, whether it be the warmth by his side or in his heart.

Six puts the empty mug down, and Siete yawns. "Should we head to bed, then?"

Maybe Six isn't immune to the season after all, the bittersweet melancholy losing its edge until he appreciates the moment for what it is, something that would become nostalgia _later_ but is a sweet moment now. "That would be preferable," he says, closing his eyes.

"Excellent. Oh, welcome home, by the way."

The lights twinkle like all the stars Siete could ever command. "It's good to be back."

**Author's Note:**

> Fic and chapter titles from the song _Please Come Home For Christmas_!  
> Also, I was very sad about the Siete rebal for a few days because I had a Dark GW otk set up for at least two months with him next to Six… the BETRAYAL I FELT. I WAS SO READY


End file.
